Ahh the good old ding dong song   On the same theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIUk08iYZKE

I've been listening to alot of these guys lately:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

There's also an Econo Lodge just down the street. I ended up there last year. It's certainly not the most luxurious place to stay, but it wasn't a rathole or anything.

I ended up going with the Physical Security Skills for Penetration Testers class.

Btw, if you 're going and haven't booked the hotel, better get on it. I had to call Hyatt to get in at all, and had to pay the non-conference rate for one night. Neither the hotel page link from the Derbycon site nor the regular hotel reservation page were showing availability.

Thanks for the feedback on the exploit class, that's one of the ones that I was looking at. I may go for the physical security class instead then, if I end up doing one.

I can definitely see Creative Risk Analysis Projections being produced by the ASS-holder.

Someone should offer an astroturfing certification (Perhaps the Astroturfing Super Specialist?). Then there would be a standard to measure against when hiring these folks and we wouldn't have to suffer through unfortunate incidents like this.

Oh and welcome to EH.net Travis. There are some really good/smart folks here, happy to have you join in.

One way or the other, it amounts to jumping in, in some fashion. Journey of a thousand miles and all that...

Yup, its out of pocket for me as well. I did get to go to RSA this year though, so I can't complain too much.

I'm still debating on whether to take a class or not. Anyone else taking one?

Also keep in mind that pen testing is a fairly specialized area in the security industry and that many of the open positions will be looking for candidates with a solid body of experience. You might open your scope up a bit and take a look at more general infosec jobs. You'll be a bit more likely to find positions there that are aimed at folks with less experience.

Also, the old adage "its not what you know, its who you know" has always held true for me. To repeat MaXe, you need to be doing some serious networking with other folks in the field.

They've definitely jumped the shark with the second season. The first season was moderately clever and hackerish, the second is just a stupid office sitcom. It also appears to have indeed been canceled again:

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/04/12/breaking-in-canceled-again/128767/

I'm planning to be out for it 

Heck yes. Get a few drinks in me and I'll show you my CISSP test scar. I think there's still a bit of shrapnel in there...